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A Moment of Science

Indiana Public Media

A Moment of Science is a daily audio podcast, public radio program and video series providing the scientific story behind some of life's most perplexing mysteries.

2023

A Moment of Science is a daily audio podcast, public radio program and video series providing the scientific story behind some of life's most perplexing mysteries.

2023
41hr 22min
Thumbnail for "Growing up with your taste preferences".
Our lifelong food preferences are largely shaped by the foods we're exposed to early on in childhood.
Thumbnail for "Dino Eat Dino? Not for T. Rex and Stegosaurus".
Thumbnail for "How Blind and Sighted People Understand Color".
Thumbnail for "The Spade-toothed Beaked Whale".
Thumbnail for "A Flightless Bird Family Tree".
Thumbnail for "What Is Wax, Anyway".
Thumbnail for "The Largest Bird to Ever Live".
Thumbnail for "The Great Unconformity".
Thumbnail for "Shark Tourism".
Thumbnail for "Fluorescent Green Wasp Nests".
Thumbnail for "Handwriting and Learning to Read".
Thumbnail for "How Spiders Lure Fireflies to Their Doom".
Thumbnail for "A Comb, a Sock, a Faucet".
Thumbnail for "Aerobic Exercise affects Mental Performance".
Thumbnail for "When Pop Bottles DO Blow Up".
Thumbnail for "Underwater Money".
Thumbnail for "The Rising Water Mystery".
Thumbnail for "Mona Lisa's Smile: Now You See It, Now You Don't".
Thumbnail for "Pop Quiz on Memory".
Thumbnail for "Retrieve That Dream".
Thumbnail for "Pump You Up, Break You Down".
Thumbnail for "Winter Wheat".
Thumbnail for "Why Mice and Rats Are Used in Research".
Thumbnail for "Nostrils and Roses".
Thumbnail for "Say Cheese!".
Thumbnail for "Females Prefer Long Snoods".
Thumbnail for "Keep Your Fat End Up".
Thumbnail for "With a Huff and a Puff, Volcanoes Produce Smoke Rings".
Thumbnail for "Cold Heart, Warm Hands".
Thumbnail for "Swim Like A Fish".
Thumbnail for "Charming Fahrenheit".
Thumbnail for "Bradycardia".
Do you have an abnormally low heart rate? You might have this common treatable condition.
Thumbnail for "When Grey Goo Attacks!".
Thumbnail for "Carnivorous Bees".
Bees love honey, but did you know that some bees crave flesh?
Thumbnail for "Sometime Cavemen".
Did "cavemen" truly make homes out of caves? It turns out, our ancestors were constantly on the move.
Thumbnail for "Soft, Stretchy Batteries".
Thumbnail for "The Amazing Flash Illusion".
Thumbnail for "Rejection Leads to Agression".
Thumbnail for "What is a Hypnotic?".
Thumbnail for "Where Are the Giant Spiders?".
Thumbnail for "A Treadmill for the Mind".
Thumbnail for "Acanthostega".
Thumbnail for "Science Joke".
Thumbnail for "Dr. Mori's Uncanny Valley".
Thumbnail for "Dad called Dibs: First Pick for Feasting".
Thumbnail for "Good Reef!".
Thumbnail for "Blue Lobsters".
Thumbnail for "Pine Processionary Caterpillars ".
Thumbnail for "Body Dysmorphic Disorder".
Thumbnail for "Cats Who Flex".
Thumbnail for "Cows have their own personal preferences".
Cows, like people, have preferences, and those preferences impact behavior, especially when it comes to grazing.
Thumbnail for "Are you recollecting or reconstructing?".
We all assume that we remember things that have happened to us with great accuracy--after all, we were there!
Thumbnail for "Camouflage isn't perfect".
There are a few camouflage survival strategies, but there's no perfect solution to blend into the background.
Thumbnail for "A trip to the beach with Earth's largest marine reptile".
In 2020 amateur fossil hunter Justin Reynolds and his eleven year old daughter Ruby were walking along a beach near their home in Somerset, England when Ruby spotted something interesting.
Thumbnail for "Our brains and confirmation bias".
Learn about confirmation bias with a simple experiment
Thumbnail for "You've gotta have hearts".
Octopuses have three hearts, each one crucial to maintaining the robust blood pressure that allows them to be active hunters and powerful swimmers.
Thumbnail for "Take a look at that: The eyes of the Opiliones".
Spiders have eight eyes, horseshoe crabs have ten, and, daddy longlegs only have two. Or do they?
Thumbnail for "What not to do with your microwave".
Microwave ovens are wonderful, revolutionary cooking devices. But there are some things that you cannot, or should not, do with microwaves.
Thumbnail for "Eggcellent equipment, eggcellent results".
Egg whites are often touted as a health food, filled with more proteins than fat-rich yolks. Surprisingly, though, those proteins are also the secret to some of the most decadent creations like pillowy meringues, airy soufflés, and all manner of delicate cakes.
Thumbnail for "What are anacondas really like?".
Hollywood's version of the snake in the movie "Anaconda" was pure fantasy--a 100 foot long giant with an appetite for B-movie actors
Thumbnail for "Working memory and math anxiety".
Does doing math make you anxious? A Moment of Science has more on why that might be.
Thumbnail for "Are dragon myths based in reality?".
There are stories and myths about dragons from everywhere--from Europe to China to Australia to the Americas. Couldn't there be some reality behind the myth?
Thumbnail for "'Cause I eats me spinach".
If you want to get strong, you're supposed to eat spinach like Popeye. But how powerful is that leafy green really?
Thumbnail for "Hyenas once stalked the Arctic".
We know from ancient skeletal remains that around one million years ago, hyenas of the Chasmaporthetes genus prowled the US and Mexico. But they also stalked the tundra—a fact we’ve learned from just two fossilized molars.
Thumbnail for "Anecdotes vs statistics: Who do you believe?".
Let's say that ninety percent of the people who take a certain drug report that it works like a charm, but you know one person who says it didn't work. Would you try that drug?
Thumbnail for "What makes our ears pop?".
When traveling by plane what makes our ears pop, and what is it exactly that pops?
Thumbnail for "That's no plum: Meet the purple tomato".
A team of scientists have created the Purple Tomato, featuring skin of deep amethyst, like a plum, and insides a vivid violet. But why would they want to?
Thumbnail for "When a sweet tooth meets a numb tongue".
In an ideal universe you could scarf carton-loads of super vanilla swirl ice cream every night after dinner without remorse. In the real world, however, there's a price to pay for such indulgence, and ice cream seems to be the worst offender in terms of calories.
Thumbnail for "The giant penguin discovered on a field trip".
What was your favorite field trip as a kid? The zoo? The modern art museum? For a group of New Zealand students, it’d be hard to beat one memorable excursion: their 2006 visit to a beach in Kawhia Harbor.
Thumbnail for "The false underwater city of Zakynthos".
In shallow water off the Greek Island Zakynthos, you can see what appears to be the remains of an ancient city. But is it really?
Thumbnail for "Scales, feathers, and fur, oh my!".
Mammals, birds, and reptiles are so different from one another. How could they all evolve from a common ancestor?
Thumbnail for "Do dogs know the names of their favorite toys?".
Have you ever wondered whether your dog understands at least some of what you say to them? Scientists have too.
Thumbnail for "What happens when good bananas go bad".
You find a perfect, yellow banana in the store, but the next day at home it has brown spots. What happened?
Thumbnail for "Why does Diet Coke float?".
Here's an at-home experiment you can try: take a can of "classic" Coca-Cola and a can of Diet Coke, and without opening either one submerge them in water.
Thumbnail for "Cue the laugh track: Why hyenas giggle and guffaw".
These polka-dotted predators are no laughing matter. Learn all about hyenas with A Moment of Science.
Thumbnail for "Packing for your desert trip".
Everyone knows that white reflects heat and black absorbs it. Does that mean you shouldn't wear black though?
Thumbnail for "Does soda rot your teeth?".
There's an urban legend that teeth dissolve in a glass of soda. How harmful is it really?
Thumbnail for "What's it like on Mercury?".
The great astronomer Carl Sagan used to say that if he were transported anywhere in the solar system he would know which planet he was on just by looking around.
Thumbnail for "Why don't adults get ear aches?".
The typical toddler averages about four ear aches per year. But when's the last time you had an ear infection?
Thumbnail for "Is there an easy way to make diamonds?".
Diamonds are only occasionally brought to the surface. But because carbon is plentiful, science fiction, such as Neal Stephenson’s novel The Diamond Age, has sometimes imagined a world where scientists find an easy way to make lots of diamond artificially.
Thumbnail for "Can zebras be domesticated?".
People like to ride horses, so why not zebras?
Thumbnail for "When grey goo attacks".
Some nanotechnology theorists and science fiction aficiondos imagine a more ominous possibility. What if one of these tiny robots were given the ability to self-replicate?
Thumbnail for "Hungry porpoises may find dinner at hole foods".
It’s dinnertime in the North Sea, and you’re a hungry porpoise. Sadly, there’s no oceanic grocery store. What’s a famished sea creature to do?
Thumbnail for "Pigeons have their own superstitions".
Would you be surprised to learn that human beings aren't the only animals to behave superstitiously? The psychologist B.F. Skinner showed that you can even form a superstitious belief...in a pigeon.
Thumbnail for "How do clouds float?".
One thing we at A Moment of Science love is having the opportunity to explain the science behind things you see every day in the world around you.
Thumbnail for "The phenomenon of long colds".
One infamous feature of COVID-19 is the phenomenon of “long COVID.” Researchers hadn’t previously looked for long persisting forms of colds or the flu.
Thumbnail for "Do ants drown every time it rains?".
Ants must have a variety of survival strategies. How do ground-nesting ants cope with rain?
Thumbnail for "Which came first: the woodpecker or the fungus?".
Set aside the question about the chicken and the egg, what about the woodpecker and tree fungus?
Thumbnail for "The benefits of a walkable neighborhood".
It makes sense that if you live in a neighborhood where you can walk to places to do errands and such, that would be good for your health.
Thumbnail for "Stay balanced with your center of gravity".
Everyone has a center of gravity. Every object has one, too. It’s the point in our body where all weight is evenly balanced.
Thumbnail for "You have a bacterial cloud following you around".
Pigpen's condition might seem a bit farfetched, but scientists are finding that we might all be more like Pigpen than we imagine. Only, instead of dust, we carry our own cloud of bacteria.
Thumbnail for "What makes you see the man in the moon?".
Pareidolia is a term from psychology that refers to the tendency in people to perceive a meaningful pattern in a vague stimulus.
Thumbnail for "What's the autokinetic effect?".
"Auto" means "self" and kinetic means "motion." When you see a tiny point of light moving, it's often because you are moving yourself--or, rather, your eye is.
Thumbnail for "Skydiving spiders in the Amazon".
What's brown, has eight legs and flies?
Thumbnail for "Even rats can be pessimistic".
Ever notice when you're having a bad day it always seems to get that much worse?
Thumbnail for "New Caledonian crows can infer weight".
If you see an object blowing down the street, you will infer that it is light. That will be your conclusion even if you can’t determine what the object is.
Thumbnail for "Why do our eyes get puffy when we cry?".
When you cry for emotional reasons, your eyes act differently. So what happens next?
Thumbnail for "Immune cells and the struggle against aging".
Aging is a complex process involving accumulating damage to the cellular mechanisms of life. Anti-aging researchers want to understand and combat this process to give us healthier and longer lives.
Thumbnail for "Color-changing monkeys".
A species of howler monkey isn't dying its fur, but they are changing color.
Thumbnail for "The spider that gives milk".
Cows and humans aren't the only ones who produce milk. There are also some insects and spiders that produce a milk-like substance to feed their young.
Thumbnail for "Queen of the drowned: Bumblebees that can survive a week underwater".
When water leaked into containers of dormant queen bumblebees, the scientists assumed they’d need to hold a state funeral. But amazingly, the regal insects lived, despite drowning!
Thumbnail for "Climate change is making insects eat more crops".
Scientists are saying that as the climate warms and temperatures rise, we might lose more crops to insects.
Thumbnail for "Brick by magnetic brick".
Did you know that ancient bricks are magnetic?
Thumbnail for "Pandas always know what's for dinner".
These days, pandas have bamboo for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But that wasn't always the case.
Thumbnail for "Emotion differentiation makes you less angry".
Although we all get angry at times, for some people anger turns to aggression, while for others it doesn’t. The reasons for this have to do with how we regulate our emotions.
Thumbnail for "An amphibian mother feeds her offspring with 'milk'".
Human mothers secrete milk to feed their babies. So do other mammals. Biologists now know that many other kinds of animal mothers also secrete milk-like nutritious substances to feed their offspring.
Thumbnail for "Cultured fruit flies".
Fruit flies might not have manners when they invade your home, but they do have culture.
Thumbnail for "The ocean's fish need more clean water".
Making their way through polluted water, fish become disoriented, as sights, smells, and sounds crowd the waters. Chemical and noise pollution, and reduced water clarity, interfere with the senses, as well as the fishes’ natural instincts.
Thumbnail for "Putting science on display at the Great Exhibition of 1851".
These days, you can hear about self-driving cars when you turn on the news, or you can browse store shelves for high-tech gadgets. But in the mid-nineteenth century, there was one go-to place for the public to view scientific achievement: the Great Exhibition.
Thumbnail for "Optics and glue".
A simple exercise to do at home with A Moment of Science
Thumbnail for "Would you drink this?".
Would you drink a mixture of acetaldehyde, ethyl acetate, acetone, acetic acid, and a few of the compounds known as hexenals, which give fresh-cut grass is characteristic odor?
Thumbnail for "Schools of fish are silent swimmers".
Swimming in a school has a lot of benefits for fish, from social opportunities to avoiding predators to finding more food.
Thumbnail for "Orangutans talk about the past".
Researchers have heard orangutans make the noise after the danger has passed—a sign that they’re communicating about the past, and the first evidence that primates other than humans have that ability.
Thumbnail for "Making an egg-cellent cake".
Craving dessert? Today’s episode considers some particularly sweet science: the importance of eggs for baking a cake.
Thumbnail for "Giving a gull a break".
It’s a tough world out there, so really, what’s a gull to do?
Thumbnail for "It's not just the heat, it's the humidity".
If the air temperature gets close to our body temperature, something more is needed to keep the skin cooler than the inner body. We sweat.
Thumbnail for "Coprophagy keeps birds healthy".
By human standards, some animals’ eating habits are strange, and even disgusting. One example is coprophagy—eating poop.
Thumbnail for "How to see what soap does to water".
Water molecules attract each other. The molecules at the surface of a body of water make a film under tension. That film is strong enough to support a needle or a small insect like a water strider.
Thumbnail for "Your friendly Amazonian slingshot spider".
Researchers reported that they discovered a tiny spider in the Peruvian Amazon rain forest that has a behavior that’s surprisingly similar to the web-slinging superhero.
Thumbnail for "Reflecting on how others see you".
One mirror is not enough to see yourself as others see you. When you look at a bathroom mirror you see an image of yourself with left and right reversed.
Thumbnail for "The fault that runs through Scotland".
If you look at a map of Scotland, you may notice a line cutting straight through the country. This line, called the Great Glen Fault, is the result of a long geological history that has in turn impacted the history of Scotland itself.
Thumbnail for "Why does cotton wrinkle?".
A cool, dry cotton fiber springs back after being bent. A warm, damp cotton fiber doesn't. Moisture and temperature make the difference.
Thumbnail for "A tarantula with the blues".
Blue jays, poison dart frogs, and peacocks—each of these animals is distinct for their same vibrant color. But have you ever seen a blue spider?
Thumbnail for "When is yellow really yellow?".
Why a mix of red light and green light looks yellow, in this Moment of Science.
Thumbnail for "Male mammals aren't always bigger than females".
Evolutionary biologists thought it was a general rule among mammals that males are bigger, but that's not always the case.
Thumbnail for "Robert Hook found a surprise in cork".
The 17th-century English physicist Robert Hooke was curious about the remarkable properties of cork -- its ability to float, its springy quality, its usefulness in sealing bottles. Hooke investigated the structure of cork with a new scientific instrument he was very enthusiastic about: the microscope.
Thumbnail for "A summer night mystery: heat lightning".
One of the more mysterious pleasures of a warm summer evening is the spectacle of lightning from distant thunderstorms, flickering silently on the horizon while stars shine overhead. People usually call it heat lightning.
Thumbnail for "Why one rotten apple can spoil the barrel".
Learn about the role that ethylene plays in ripening fruit with today's A Moment of Science
Thumbnail for "Speedy snails".
Over the past 100,000 years, a snail species has done what it normally takes a species millions of years to do: give live birth.
Thumbnail for "Rediscovered in a museum drawer".
The distant past is poorly known, and paleontologists find fossil evidence for new large animals all the time.
Thumbnail for "The fruit that grows on trees, literally".
Jabuticaba is a fruit native to Brazil. It’s the size and color of a plum, with a white pulp and several seeds
Thumbnail for "What makes dreams so hard to remember?".
Perhaps you’ve heard that the average person dreams four to six times each night. But did you know that most of us are unable to recall 90% of our dreams?
Thumbnail for "Otter heroes with a secret mission".
The carefree southern sea otters of central California’s coast have had a secret mission: working to fight the devastating loss of kelp forests due to anthropogenic climate change.
Thumbnail for "What animals will thrive in the next century?".
Researchers used statistical tools to forecast which characteristics the animals of the future will likely have.
Thumbnail for "Parenting styles and telomeres".
Research suggests there's a link between parenting styles and health effects later in life
Thumbnail for "Saved by the boil".
As any aficionado will tell you, water can be just as important as the tea leaves themselves when it comes to a good brew.
Thumbnail for "Why are glass bottles different colors?".
If the color of the bottles was significant enough to control how they’re recycled, then surely the color was more than cosmetic. So what's the reason why wine bottles are olive-green and beer bottles are amber?
Thumbnail for "The future of New Zealand's birds".
Because of the isolation, New Zealand has evolved a unique set of animals dominated by abundant bird species found nowhere else.
Thumbnail for "A matter of preference".
Exposure to music, art, and architecture can have a formative impact on our sense of self.
Thumbnail for "Humans aren't unique when it comes to fingerprints".
Fingerprints might be unique to one person, but they aren't unique to one species.
Thumbnail for "The starch difference".
Have you ever made rice that was perfectly fluffy and then the next day, taken it out of the fridge only to find it hard and crumbly?
Thumbnail for "How do our organs heal themselves?".
Normally, when tissue gets injured, cells start replicating and make new tissue. But what about the heart?
Thumbnail for "Benjamin Franklin and his fabric swatches in the snow".
In a letter written in 1761, Benjamin Franklin tells how he collected some little squares of broadcloth. Franklin wanted to demonstrate that these colors would absorb different amounts of light from the sun and convert the light to different amounts of heat.
Thumbnail for "Extremophiles go to the ends of the Earth and thrive there".
Just like Goldilocks, humans have searched for a place that's "just right" to live in. That's not the same for all species, though.
Thumbnail for "Colors and their opposites, with paint".
We usually think of paint as a substance that adds color to things. But, from a physical point of view, paint works by taking colors away.
Thumbnail for "Why do people grunt when playing tennis?".
Tennis players are known for the loud grunts they make during a game. Why do they do it?
Thumbnail for "Could being a dog person be in your genes?".
In 2019 a team of Swedish and British scientists published a study claiming that whether we chose to own a dog may be influenced by our genes.
Thumbnail for "Graphene and faster computer chips".
Physicists are searching for new materials with better semiconductor properties so that computers can continue to improve.
Thumbnail for "Where the sky isn't blue".
We just covered why the sky is blue, but there are a few areas without color above us.
Thumbnail for "What makes the sky blue?".
It can't be the atmosphere, or dust, or water droplets. So what makes the sky blue?
Thumbnail for "Temperature: A key variable in making the perfect cup of coffee".
Water temperature is a major element of quality control in making coffee. Why exactly is temperature important?
Thumbnail for "A rattlesnake's rattling trick".
Rattlesnakes modulate their rattling frequency to trick other animals into thinking the distance between them is shorter than it really is.
Thumbnail for "Cud-chewing monkeys".
Proboscis monkeys from Borneo and cows do have something in common: they both chew their cuds.
Thumbnail for "Rain in this desert is deadly".
The Atacama Desert in Northern Chile is the driest desert on Earth. The only life there is microbial, and researchers study it to get an idea of what we might find on Mars.
Thumbnail for "What inspired the Lorax?".
One study proposes that this “sort of a man” described as “shortish, and oldish, and brownish and mossy” could have been inspired by the patas monkey.
Thumbnail for ""Terror beasts" of the early Cambrian".
Paleontologists constantly search for new species of fossilized creatures from the distant past to expand our understanding of the history of life on Earth.
Thumbnail for "How do mosquitoes find us?".
Mosquitoes always seem to find us, no matter how hard we try to get away. How do they do it?
Thumbnail for "Rain on the rear window".
The next time you're driving during a rain shower, glance back at the rear window. You'll notice that while raindrops batter the front windshield, they seem to avoid the back window as long as the car is moving. How is that possible?
Thumbnail for "A giant bee, rediscovered".
Megachile pluto, commonly called “Wallace’s giant bee” is the world’s largest bee. And perhaps its most elusive.
Thumbnail for "Do you start your day with tea or coffee?".
Do you prefer the jolt of coffee or a more gentle start to your day with tea?
Thumbnail for "When every day is opposite day for your organs".
Situs inversus totalis means that all the organs, blood vessels, and nerves in the chest and abdomen are flipped to the opposite side.
Thumbnail for "Why do square waves happen?".
Normally you’d just see waves coming in parallel to the shore. But what if there were also waves moving perpendicular to the shore?
Thumbnail for "Humans have been hanging out with cats for almost 10,000 years".
A grave in Cyprus from 7500 BC shows a furry feline and human owner buried together. It’s the oldest known site of a tame cat.
Thumbnail for "Prehistoric air conditioning".
How did dinosaurs keep themselves cool?
Thumbnail for "Genetic mutation and pain".
Did you know it’s possible to have a gene mutation that really does make bumping into furniture or even getting surgery totally painless?
Thumbnail for "Walking uphill is hard work".
What makes walking uphill so much harder?
Thumbnail for "Why do giraffes need such long necks?".
Have you ever wondered why giraffes have such long necks?
Thumbnail for "How mosquitoes will be impacted by global warming".
Scientists think that as many as a billion people around the world could be newly exposed to the diseases spread by mosquitoes within the next fifty years as global temperatures rise.
Thumbnail for "The unique species of the tufted deer".
This small species lives throughout southern China, from high eastern Tibetan mountains to low coastal mountains, preferring forests and shrubby habitats. And its most interesting feature is its tusks.
Thumbnail for "Virtual reality and yawning".
There’s a big gap between how we act in virtual reality and how we act in real life, as scientists who did an experiment focused on yawning found out.
Thumbnail for "Not all antioxidants are the same".
We've heard a lot about how antioxidants can help prevent disease. Does that mean we should eat as many antioxidant-rich foods as possible?
Thumbnail for "Moths use acoustic camouflage".
Most moth species are active at night. It must be really dangerous to be a moth. Luckily, they've developed a few ways to protect themselves.
Thumbnail for "Why do humans like coffee?".
Scientists think that animals evolved the ability to detect bitter tastes in order to avoid things that are harmful or even poisonous. So why do we like coffee?
Thumbnail for "What makes swatting a fly so hard?".
Where most of us are concerned, the question is not whether we would hurt a fly but whether we could.
Thumbnail for "The mysteries of Oumuamua".
In October, 2017 astronomers at Haleakala Observatory in Hawaii discovered something strange. It was an object, moving through the solar system too fast to have been captured by the sun’s gravitational pull.
Thumbnail for "Red cone, green cone".
Did you know that compared to creatures such as dogs and cats, humans can distinguish millions more shades of color?
Thumbnail for "Tsunamis in the oceans of Mars".
There's evidence that the northern lowlands of Mars are the basin of a huge ocean that existed more than 3 billion years ago, and covered about a third of the planet's surface.
Thumbnail for "Fighting back against root rot".
Root rot is a condition of indoor and outdoor plants. Root rot may be caused by poorly drained or overwatered soil, or soil-borne pathogens and nematodes.
Thumbnail for "In the atmosphere, microbes are walking on air".
Microbes are everywhere, from the deepest ocean to the highest mountaintop. They're also in the air all around, riding the breeze up, up, up into sky.
Thumbnail for "The ant with moves like a cheetah".
But a cheetah isn’t the fastest animal in the world, even though a lot of people think it is. The animal that can move the fastest is actually a lot smaller: the Dracula ant.
Thumbnail for "Background noise and sleep quality".
Background white noise can help some peoples’ sleep quality by minimizing the length of time it takes them to get to sleep. So, what exactly is white noise?
Thumbnail for "Different rates of sea level rise".
Mid-Atlantic states such as North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland have been hit particularly hard by rising sea levels
Thumbnail for "Ant doctors".
Do other species have healthcare?
Thumbnail for "How your attitude affects your body".
Our attitudes might affect us more than our genes do.
Thumbnail for "Can animals tell time?".
Does your pet give you the evil eye when they get fed a few minutes late? Its like they know...but do they?
Thumbnail for "Could The Gulf Stream collapse?".
The Gulf Stream is a current of warm water in the North Atlantic Ocean that travels up the Eastern coast of North America. Media reports have raised concerns that it may collapse as the climate warms due to human activities like burning fossil fuels.
Thumbnail for "Ice age plant survived the big chill".
Like a science fiction time traveler, an arctic plant of the late Pleistocene age, over 31,000 years old, was resurrected after a long frozen sleep.
Thumbnail for "Every time you eat a fig, remember a fig wasp lost its wings".
Figs have their thousands of individual flowers folded up inside them, so they can't rely on bees or wind to pollinate them with a male fig's pollen. That's where the fig wasp comes in.
Thumbnail for "Study links air pollution and a decline in cognitive function".
Has your brain been feeling foggy lately? Or maybe, smoggy? If you live somewhere affected by air pollution, there might be a connection.
Thumbnail for "The jellyfish that never grows old".
Scientists once thought that aging and death were the inevitable fate of all complex living things. But then, by accident, they discovered they were wrong.
Thumbnail for "The great cilantro debate".
On today's Moment of Science, we'll be sniffing our way through a controversial culinary conundrum: the great cilantro debate.
Thumbnail for "Elephant grandmothers means more elephant calves".
Grandmother elephants are important for the survival of baby calves.
Thumbnail for "Looks delicious! The connection between appearance and taste".
English is full of phrases that connect appearance to taste. However, scientists have been discovering that the connection between the two runs deeper than simple metaphors.
Thumbnail for "Escaping alive from a frog's stomach".
Sometimes, when a frog eats a large insect, you can see it squirming in the frog’s belly, desperate to escape. Lack of air, acids, and digestive enzymes seal its inevitable doom.
Thumbnail for "Copy your neighbors, but only when they're successful".
Scientists looked at the nestbox choices of pied flycatchers after the birds observed the "success" of nesting great tits.
Thumbnail for "Why are operating rooms so cold?".
Is there a reason operating rooms are always so cold and drafty?
Thumbnail for "Starfish are all heads, no tails".
Colorful or plain, skinny or chubby, big or small, the nearly 2,000 species have it all.
Thumbnail for "Skeptics think about vaccines differently".
Vaccine skeptics might see vaccines the way they do because they tend to overestimate the likelihood of rare negative events.
Thumbnail for "Walked or swam? An index can answer".
How do scientists figure out even basic facts such as whether an animal walked on land or swam in the sea?
Thumbnail for "Play and the brain".
Researchers classify an animal behavior as play when it doesn’t involve an external reward, such as food, seems to serve no purpose, occurs repeatedly, and happens when the animal is relaxed and not facing threats.
Thumbnail for "What we can learn from ancient climate records".
Scientists find clues to how the earth's climate is changing by looking to the past.